A judge says he’s sick of shoplifters using the cost of living in the Queenstown Lakes as an excuse for “pillaging supermarkets”.

Judge Russell Walker’s comments came while he was sentencing Joseph Roger Windall, 19, on 12 charges of theft from Wānaka’s New World Three Parks supermarket.

Windall’s lawyer, Megan Waller, said the British national had travelled to New Zealand in May with his girlfriend on a working holiday visa, and they’d underestimated the cost of living in Wānaka.

It’d then taken him a while to find work, but he was now employed as a carer.

The defendant and his girlfriend had been experiencing financial hardship, and he’d been “stealing to eat”, Waller said.

“He wasn’t stealing luxuries, it was for the most part out of necessity.”

Convictions were likely to jeopardise Windall’s ability to remain in the country, and affect his ability to apply for visas in other countries, such as Australia, she said.

However, Walker said he was tired of hearing the cost of living as an excuse for shoplifting.

The “most rudimentary Google search” would tell anyone the cost of living in Wānaka or Queenstown was higher than other parts of the country.

“I think the result comes back with the word ‘exorbitant’.”

The defendant had “repeatedly plundered” the supermarket on 12 occasions between July 14 and August 10, using the same method to steal items with a total value of $259.98.

“A lot of people, Mr Windall, particularly families, are finding times really tough at the moment.

“Every time you go and steal from a supermarket, you simply make it more expensive for those honest families to buy groceries for their children.”

He entered the 12 convictions and sentenced Windall to 90 hours’ community work and ordered him to pay back the value of the stolen items.

He also imposed a deferred sentence of 12 months, which means if Windall’s charged with any dishonesty or shoplifting offences in that time, he risks going to prison.